Final Fantasy Tactics A2: Grim Grimoire Beta 0.7- Last Updated: 2/25/16

[Eternal]

Today's new job is the Occultist, a magick-based job for Viera. Based around the concept of Lovecraftian lore and blood rituals, the Occultist's magicks are not cast with MP, but rather, HP. As such, keeping an eye on their HP is vital, as is using Regen on them, or curing them regularly. Occultists focus on subtle ways of swaying the flow of battle, such as controlling and manipulating enemies and debuffing them. Using an Occultist's skills effectively can quickly change how a battle is faring. All Occultist skills except for Possess consume some of the user's HP.

-Possess allows you to directly control a human unit, be it friend or foe. Used on allies, you can basically give them an extra action at the cost of your turn, although the Possessed unit cannot move. Yes, the enemy AI will use Possess. And yes, they will use it on you. Your strongest warrior is now your greatest liability.

-Geist reverts a unit's HP and MP values to what it was on the unit's previous turn. Used with mages, this allows them to keep firing off powerful spells, or it allows you to heal a unit that took a beating this turn.

-Abomination inflicts Immobilize in a small AoE.

-Offering is one of the very rare sources of full HP revival now that Arise is gone. Offering sacrifices the user to revive an ally from the dead with full HP.

-Elder One is the highest damaging, non-gimmicky, non-fractional source of Dark damage in the game, dealing heavy Dark damage to a single unit and potentially inflicting Confuse.

-Squassation deals non-elemental damage to a single target and drains it of its accumulated Smash Gauge, allowing the user to more quickly summon those OTHER eldritch abominations (aka Scions).

-Sanguis is the highest source of Water damage in the game aside from gimmick skills, and it deals that damage in a small AoE.

-Xenoglossia restores a unit's MP by 20% of the user's Current HP and increases that unit's Magick.

http://imgur.com/a/doAbO

[Bonesy]

you mean cast with hp and not mp i believe?

[FrozenDragon150]

Sorry for posting this here, but it's the most active thread in this section.

Is there a way to change the windows' size of lennart's tools? I was doing it the hard way, hex editing, but it was too tedious and i wanted to use his tools, problem is, since my laptop's screen is pretty small, a part of the window goes into the toolbar, and i cannot pull it out of it, so i cannot modify some things that go down there, namely Magick and Resistance. Halp

Alternatively, is there a way to run them on linux? Wine doesn't work, and all java plugins say that the "Data/Ability.text file doesn't  exist"

[Eternal]

@Bonesy: Correct. I've fixed the post.

@FrozenDragon: I don't believe there is a way to change the size of the window, from what I'm seeing. As for Linux, I know nothing about it, so I'm afraid I can't help with that.

[FrozenDragon150]

I see...

Well, i just tried with various programs that forcibly resize, and even though they resized all right, i cannot scroll down and see the data i need to see, so it effectively gives a smaller window but still doesn't allow me to see anything

[Eternal]

As promised, I have a Christmas present for everyone! Attached is an update for FFTA2 GG. It hasn't been tested, but it features all of the new jobs mentioned above and most ability tooltips have been updated. Monster skill tooltips have not yet been updated because I'm still messing around with what I want to do with monsters to begin with. I hope everyone enjoys it!

NOTE: I'm switching to a .ups file format. I created this patch (and it can be patched to a ROM) using Tsukuyomi, which can be found and downloaded here. Please feel free to let me know of any errors or bugs you find while playing!

[chocolatemoose]

I've only played a little bit (<10 missions), but here's what I've got so far:

- Reprise causes the Fencer unit to flicker. The flickering isn't consistent and is more likely to happen when another unit uses an ability
- I assume you're aware of the job name inconsistencies (i.e. some places I see Orator, others I see Tinker)
- Wolves are strong! Not saying that in a judgmental way - I haven't played enough or looked at monster stat growths to tell how strong - but the additional move + the 6 range on their blows means that no mage is safe
- Really minor: Fire has +1 AoE, Thunder has +1 range and Blizzard can't target your own party members, correct? I noticed when playing one of the story missions (think it was the tomato-hunting one) that Fire and Thunder also didn't target guests (Cid or Adelle)

[Leynerishkigal]

Hi there,

First I need to tell that I register just in order to help with the testing of this hack.
So far it's great, thank you very much Sir Eternal (as there's no news of another FFT)

I am ten hours in and here what I got:

- The flickering of the Fencer after the use of Reprise as chocolatemoose said.
- One of the Lamia attack (the one giving Doom and Charm) seems to be bugged: as the timer for Doom reached zero, the doomed character didn't died but instead received boons (reflect and regen or astra). Plus I think the Doom part of this attack has an accuracy of 100% as every characters got doomed during the mission (it was during the "a voice from the well" mission)
- The Tame ability of the druid didn't seems to work (Should the monster be charmed or in critical status for this skill to work ?)

Here what I can report so far.

Stay tune 

[Eternal]

Thanks for the feedback, you two! And welcome to FFH, Leyner!

-I already know about Reprise's animation bug. It's something I've tried many ways to fix, but haven't been able to without messing the entire animation, four-hit thing acting up, so I compromised. I knew about it ages ago, but forgot to note it in the topic. Thankfully, it shouldn't cause any crashing or glitching. Whoops.

-Name inconsistencies are a little challenging at the moment. I can change text, but a lot of the job names are images, which I currently can't change. Unfortunately, those will have to stay for a bit. If anyone has any questions about what job is what, just let me know and I'll do my best to help as I can!

-Monsters in general will feel really fierce, as is intended. That being said, they're likely to change a fair bit later on. I don't like Wolves being ranged units, for example. I'd much rather they be agile, in-your-face, swarming units.

-Your assumptions about Fire/Blizzard/Thunder are correct. Fire and Thunder should target -any- unit, not just foes. Does it work on regular allies? I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work on Guests.

-Interesting that Doom is bugged. I think, then, that the Doom status is tied to something else... though I'm not sure what that'd be. I feel like using that timer for something other than a Death proc could be a very interesting concept though! After 3 turns being Quickened or something. I must plot!

-What monster did you attempt to Tame? When I tested Tame, it worked (I tested on a Cockatrice) though it should work on any Controllable monster.

[Leynerishkigal]

Thank for the warm welcome Sir Eternal !

For the Tame skill, I attempted to Tame a Lamia, a Werewolf and a Fire Drake but I was unable to. Those monsters should be controllable I think but monsters stayed in gray (as an invalid target) and couldn't be selected.

Another point I would like to add: I think that spell blade with sub occultist is kinda game-breaking as they use their life for magick attack, can do physical attack, enhanced Attack, Defense, Magick at the cost of only Resistance (Inquisitor+Sanguine chant combo) and heal themselves with sanguinate. I think the synergy is a bit too good between those two job as MP has no use except for the spell blade magick attack (which I rarely use).

The idea behind the two job are really good and I am having fun with them but together... maybe giving one of the job to another race...but it is up to you.

As for the bugged Doom, I don't know if it's the spell or if it's specific of that Lamia attack, I need to test if it is reproductible. All I can say is that during the mission when Lamias used that skill it has that bug and it did it on every doomed character but it was only on that one mission. I will try to find another one with Lamias in it to test the reproductibility.

[chocolatemoose]

I can validate the Tame bug. In the Wanted: Ugohr storyline mission I wasn't able to control the wolves or cockatrices. Ran into the same issue in another mission as well.

However, I was able to tame a dreamhare in a clan battle.

@Eternal: when you were able to control the cocktarice, did your nu mou have a Heal Chime equipped, or had learned an ability from the Heal Chime?

I think that I was able to tame the dreamhare because I'd already learned Tame from the Lamia Harp, which has the dreamhare a-ability for the vanilla beastmaster.

[Leynerishkigal]

@chocolatemoose

I think that I was able to tame the dreamhare because I'd already learned Tame from the Lamia Harp, which has the dreamhare a-ability for the vanilla beastmaster.

Do you mean you have Tame and dreamhare as A-ability for the Lamia Harp ?


Edit 1: My bad, saw it wasn't the case

On another note, I tried fighting by equiping the weapon corresponding to the monster that is controlled by that weapon (ie Blueleaf flute against Bomb and Hurdy Gurdy against Drake) and attempted to Tame said monster but still no luck...
Maybe it's only working with dreamhare ?

Edit 2: Just as chocolatemoose said I was also able to Tame a Dreamhare in a clan battle. But equiping the Demon Bell and trying to Tame the Flan in the adaptibility clan battle did nothing.

[Eternal]

When I tested Tame, it was with a Beastmaster with all Moon Maidens equipped (for all the Speed), with all skills mastered. If you all wish to play with Tame since you'll have quicker access to this all than I will for the next day or so, try downloading the FFTA2 Ability Editor (found on this board), open your ROM, scroll down to ability 112 (Dreamhare), and that's Tame. Try changing the Valid Target from 01 (Controllable Monster) to 27 (Monster) and see if that fixes it. If not, I'll have to do some more messing around of my own, as well. I'm thinking it may be a Clan Battle only thing, since the mission I tested it on was that random Clan Battle in the desert with the Viking, Beastmaster, Thieves, and Cockatrices.

As far as Spellblades and Occultists are concerned, thanks for letting me know how they play! It's great that people are finding good combinations using the new jobs. To be quite honest, I'm not particularly concerned about balance just yet. Of course, I don't want anything downright broken, but I'm focused at this point on making sure the jobs feel fun and unique. Further, once I can properly edit battles, they'll be quite a bit tougher, meaning you may need to use useful combos like that to tip the edge in your favor. Let me know how you feel about how the other jobs play as well! Thanks as always for the feedback!

[Leynerishkigal]

Thank for the tips Sir Eternal.

Remplacing the valid target from 1 to 27 seems to work fine (at least in one of the story mission). I was able to Tame Nightshades, Bombs and Flans (the forrest fire mission)

As for spellblade/Occultist combo, I am glad it could be helpful.

As for the others jobs, I think rending might cause problems as characters can't equip thing during a fight contrary to FFT  .

[Eternal]

Glad the fix worked! I'll have to change that for the next update.

Rending gear is supposed to be dangerous, and things like Safeguard are far more useful now because of it. Stealing, Rending, Buffing, and Debuffing are huge in my mods.

[Bonesy]

a decent alternative UPS patcher is NUPS BTW, it's what I usually end up using lol

gonna start playing eventually, I just need to make space for it lol

[Leynerishkigal]

Rending gear is supposed to be dangerous, and things like Safeguard are far more useful now because of it. Stealing, Rending, Buffing, and Debuffing are huge in my mods.

My bad. It's true that I amost never use support abilities like those as there's no need in the Vanilla game 
It's a wonder why they put them inside the game but never give them a real use...Now they will be useful at least.

On another note, by praising (focus+crit up) a unit with the "art of war" skillset, I saw that the healing of the "first aid" skill was double (I think it come from the focus state of said unit). Was that effect intended ?

[Eternal]

It wasn't an intended effect, but I'm not against it. I kinda like it, actually. I think that could also happen in Vanilla as well, since you can Focus on your first turn and then First Aid on the next.

[Leynerishkigal]

I see. I never really test it on Vanilla (only Hume would be able to do it I guess as they got access to both "focus" from archer and "first aid" from soldier)

I think I got something on the bugged Doom. I replayed the "Voice from the well" mission and when the Lamia used the Kiss ability I got the bug: when the Doom timer reach 0, it gave me the "Prime" status (and not as I said before, blame my bad memory). While comparing between your hack and Vanilla game with the FFTA2 AE, something strucked me. Doom give death when the timer reach 0 so what if there's a link between "Doom" (0248) and "Death" (00E5). And I saw it: you gave "Death" the prime effect.

So my theory is that whatever X (Target, Effect, etc) you put in "Death" it will use the Doom Timer to launch X when the timer reach 0.

So I guess you could do delayed attack, magick or buffing and stuff like that at the cost of the "Doom giving Death" status

As it's your work I don't dare to touch it further and I hope this was helpful.

[chocolatemoose]

Caught a pretty odd bug with Hunter's Oust:

- Used with Hunter on Antlion in the Treehugger mission
- When selected the ability displayed a 100% accuracy rate
- When fired the Antlion showed an animation of scurrying off and away
- However, the Antlion did not leave; it was still on the battlefield with a blind icon above its head, but it was invisible. Not normal invisible, where you can see the unit's shadow - totally invisible save for the blinking blind icon

What conditions need to be met for the Druid's Squelch ability to become active? It's always grayed out for me. Also, I've seen Gust be active and inactive at different points in the same battle. Is that intended?

I usually only manage to play 2-3 battles a day, so my feedback will come in drips and drabs.